Model engineer show at Royal Ascot 19-21st september 2008

[CrewCab]

Aiming at the Saturday for the show myself,

Sounds good to me ;D do we all need to wear a woolly hat and name badge :

Just ordered a ticket, it's about 21/2 hours for me .............. roadworks permitting etc so I'll aim to get there around 10:00am.

So who's going gang ............


Ralph
CC

just copy and paste the list then add your name, It'll help Johns S calculate how many cups to take ;D :big: ;D

 

[Twinsquirrel]

Ralph
CC
Twinsquirrel

 

[Divided He ad]

Sorry for the delay... Been playing pool down the pub ;D

I'll upload the pics now and hopefully post the link in about an hour?! (ish)



Watch this space...... ;D


Oh and yes definately for the Saturday at the midlands show


Edit.....

OK so my camera was working a bit... 178 photo's after the most blurred ones were removed!!!

There are also after looking a few vid's worth showing, stirlings, loco's running outside and some info... I will sort that out and post soon as I can..... On with the uploading!!

 

[Divided He ad]

Ok, the pic's are in.........


My earlier disappointments were with the venue and lack of things to see and buy.... I wanted so many more photo's. ( I had intended to take upwards of 1000 pic's so that I had some choice when I came to display the show gallery... Oh well 177 it is.....)

What there was on display was clearly of superior quality engineering, hopefully you will see some that are of personal interest to yourselves.


Enjoy ;D

They are in no particular order.....

http://s289.photobucket.com/albums/ll221/dividedhead/model show 2008/Royal Ascot 2008/


Ralph.

 

[dparker]

Ralph: WOW!!!! Do you think a few man hours went into building all those models?
I liked it when you took a total view of a model and then moved in for a closeup with the fine details. Quite a lot more railroad engines than you are likely to see at the GEARS show here in Portland, Oregon USA. The predominant model out here is of stationary steam, antique stationary gas or automotive engines. Air plane engine models are also quite often seen and a few locomotive engines of a size to pull at least a few cars with people on them.

We have two model riding railroads within 40 miles of Portland but the one I go to each year seems to be leaning towards a small gas engine for power inside a locomotive body or ones run by deep cycle batteries.

Thank you for the pictures. (These shows make me feel totally inadequate as a model maker.)
don

 

[Divided He ad]

I would think Quite a few thousand hours in most of the big loco's
I have some videos of a few of the outdoor loco' shots I will sort them out and post hopefully later in the week.

Glad you liked them Don, I think they make many of us look like the amateurs we are.... but then they all started somewhere! ;D



Ralph.

 

[compound driver 2]

from an exhibitors point of view the Ascot show was a fiasco from start to finish. I booked to put two traction engines in the loan section five months ago. I didnt recieve the entry conformation until a month before the show. We scurried around trying to find the time off owrk to bring the engines up on the Wednesday as asked for in the conformation pack, dates were booked off for me and my other half.

Two days before we were ready to take the engines up I called Lou Rex to confirm the time we would be there only to be told the Wednesday had been canceled and we had to deliver on the Thursday. A good few frantic calls and we were set to go a day later.

We arrived early Thursday with the engines in teh car only to be told our passes were invalid. We sat for an hour before being let in to Ascot.

Once we were outside the ascot building the chaos really started. I unloaded the big traction engine and rolled it onto the building. NO ONE there to tell me what table was the loan section so more delays. We finaly booked in and got the reciepts for the engines at 14:40. Ok so now the tables were ready surprise surprise no one to help lift the engines onto the table. Given that one is over 200lbs I was atthe point of blowing my top. It was thanks to the good people at the reading society that my engine was lifted onto the table.

On returning to the car one of the ascot bods was moaning about a drop of oil under our car. Our car does not drop oil!
Once we were back home it dawned on me that the much vaunted security officers were not present at the ascot building. I had been told that security people would be there in the hall 24 hours ad ay all the show. After a rather unhappy night we returned to ascot on the friday and confronted them about security. later that day officers were indeed present.

We stayed at the show for the three days, talking to almost all of the exhibitors and many of the traders. The general oppinion from all was how badly the show had been run and set up. Many of the people we talked to said that the chances of attending the show again if it was at Ascot was almost zero. Im sure many will after a year to forget but thats the way memory works.

this year was the lowest turn out of loan and competition models I have ever seen at a model engineer show and iv been going for 30 years, eer since I was a boy. I am 99% sure its down to the venue more than anything else. people were very unhappy after last years 100th show and I think the organisers should have taken that on board and moved venue.

The models there were of the normal high standard of work and the gold medal winners as always were the top of the tree for model engineering. I just wish there had been more to see. The guys I feel sorry for are the ones outside that dragged 2.5km of track from germany only to sit and watch no more than two or three ocos a day run on it!

 

[Divided He ad]

CD, I can only say I will never go to that show again. It was the start of what was supposed to be FUN weekend! It must have been so disappointing for you to have made all the effort for.

Which was your engine?... did I take a photo of it?! ;D

I really lost heart after I ran out of things to admire in about 40 min's!
So I circuited a few times and took photo's.
Stopped to have a chat about a cast alu' v8 still under construction, some really erratic and fun stirlings and a SOT ornamental turning display (an 1800's machine I really like.... bit like a rose engine and very expensive if you could find one! )

As I said I purchased some tooling etc but less than half of what I had come looking for! I just hope the Midlands show is worth it? :-\


I took some video of the loco's on the tracks and while I was waiting for things to move I over heard one of the lads on the gate say ' It took 3 days to lay all the track, we had to carry it one piece at a time to the far end from the metal crates it was delivered in' .... Now that was a very long way to have to carry all that track! They still had to put it all away again too!

 

[cfellows]

Ralph,

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing them with us.

Chuck

 

[wareagle]

Ralph, thanks for taking us along to the show! Sorry to hear about the disappointment. That's a shame!

In the area I live, there isn't any model engineering shows that I know of. If there is, they are very very small and not publicized. To see a good show, the closest one that I know of is about 1000 miles away (no exaggeration). Talking SWMBO into making a trip for a model show is a challenge, but I am slowing chipping away.

Better luck at the next one!!

 

[compound driver 2]

Hi DH

yep you took a few of my engines. Mine were the two traction engines one red 2 inch to the foot, and the the green 1 inch to the foot with a water bowser behind it. You also have aphoto of my step son in the background. he stayed with the engines most of the threee days.

It looks like the show will be talked about at the next federation meeting so maybe some changes will be made if the organisers are sensible.

Most of the blame lays with Magicalia the promotions company. But also with the staff at Ascot for ignoring the needs of people. they did the same last year so nothing new.

 

[Divided He ad]

Chuck, glad you liked them... I should have taken pic's of the ornamental turning display... too busy talking and my head was all but fuzzy by then! You might have a use for the rose engine type stuff in your telescopes? Some real nice effects out there!

WE, I used to find it possible to get my ex-other half to go places if I saved enough to let her make it a shopping trip too!!! You never know? :big:

Hopefully the Midlands show will have much more to see and buy ;D


You mean these two CD? ;D

They are very good looking machines. They must have taken a few hours!!!
It doesn't look it in the photo's but it was quite dark in there and the sunlight was coming in from all angles! Still I think I managed a few good ones of them

Thank you for making the effort, even if the organisers did not.



Ralph.

 

[compound driver 2]

Hi DH
yes there mine. The small one took about 3000 hours and used castings to speed things up. The big one is almost all from bar stock (Mehanite for cylinders and such) very little was bought in for it past the pressure gauge and a few globe valves.
Time wise again about 3000 hours.

The small one has clocked up about 15 miles and the large one is on its 3rd or 4th steaming. Ill start running it a bit more now the shows past.

I agree the photos are good given the lighting in the venue. Most of the pictures I took came out dark.


kevin

 

[compound driver 2]

http://s138.photobucket.com/albums/q268/kevingambrell/?action=view&current=25092008017.flv


Thats the red one in steam

 

[wareagle]

CD, that is a work of art! :bow: :bow: Thanks for sharing the video!!

 

[cfellows]

Beautiful work!

Chuck

 

[Divided He ad]

Kevin..... That is (by my possibly wrong maths calcs ) a full 365 days of 8 hour shifts! EACH!!! Dedication indeed.

It must be such a good feeling steaming them up? When you say 15 miles is that pulling you along too? (Like the one in my Harrogate show video)

Shame about the photo's, I lost about 25 to fuzzy and light issues. Feel free to copy any of the ones I took



Ralph.

 

[John S]

All the sentiments echoed, I'd never have the patience to make one of these or even a far lesser model.

If I was re-incarnated as a vulture I'd have to kill something. :
.

 

[steamer]

Compound Driver 2,

Words escape me.....Magnificant will have to do until I find a better language to use.


Mr Stevenson:

If I was re-incarnated as a vulture I'd have to kill something. :
.

You know I have been looking for the right words to properly sum up my personal feelings of inadequacy after seeing some of the most beautiful models I have ever seen.....God man you hit is spot on ;D...im still giggling.

 

[John S]

Steamer,
At last years Royal Ascot it was a special show being the 100 years of SMEE, Society of Model and Experimental Engineers.
We were invited to take two of our CNC machines along as part of the Centenary, a bit of past present and future.
The stand was situated at the bottom of the escalator taking people up to the room where they had the model collections of Edgar T Westbury, Harold Hall, Duplex and many other but above all the models of Cherry Hill [ nee Hinds ]

It was both funny and tragic to see groups of people make there way up the stairs laughing and talking only to descend some time later deadly quiet and serious as they realised that they could never manage to reach those heights of skill they had just witnessed.

.